Cancer-vaccine trial to begin at Mayo Clinic

Friday

Sep 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2011 at 11:29 AM

MINNEAPOLIS - A few weeks ago, the Mayo Clinic made an intriguing announcement: One of its scientists had discovered a possible way to prevent ovarian and breast cancer with vaccines. And Mayo was ready to start testing them in people.

MINNEAPOLIS — A few weeks ago, the Mayo Clinic made an intriguing announcement: One of its scientists had discovered a possible way to prevent ovarian and breast cancer with vaccines. And Mayo was ready to start testing them in people.

Within days, word had spread around the globe. Hundreds of women were suddenly vying for a few dozen spots in the clinical trials in Minnesota.

Keith Knutson, 47, the lead scientist, wasn’t surprised: If his experiments pan out, they could signal a turning point in the battle against cancer.

The experiments, set to begin early next year in Rochester, are designed to see if the vaccines can prevent recurrences of ovarian and breast cancer in women who have survived earlier bouts.

Knutson is among an elite group of scientists trying to attack cancer the way that their predecessors fought diseases like smallpox and measles.

“Ultimately,” he said, “we want to develop a vaccine that can actually prevent breast and ovarian cancer.”

Knutson, who has spent a dozen years on the project, says many women are understandably eager to take a chance on cancer vaccines, even experimental ones.

Cancer survivors, he said, “just feel like sitting ducks.” Long after treatment, they live in fear that the disease will return. Often, it does.

The first goal of the research is to test safety, so fewer than 50 women will be in the first round of trials.

“They’re going to want us to watch them for a couple of years,” Knutson said.

Only then, if all goes well, can larger studies begin to prove whether the vaccines work.

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